'From the year 1812 up to the year 1815, the young banker's life revolved in a sufficiently prosaic circle; working steadily at the banking-house, partaking sparingly of amusements of a social character, and devoting the greater portion of his leisure to reading and meditating upon subjects of an instructive cast. 'Among these, political economy, history and metaphysics occupied the leading interest in his mind. To the first of these sciences he had been attracted by the writings of Mr. David Ricardo, with whom personally he afterwards became acquainted (in 1817)'.